Who Is The Conch In Lord Of The Flies

In William Golding’s novel “The Lord of the flies” there are more symbolic differences then similarities between the conch and the pigs head. Two differences that were in the novel was that the conch symbolised order and the pigs head on the stick symbolised the evil within them. Secondly the conch and the Pigs head on the stick show different types of power. And finally a similarity was that both the Conch and the Pigs head on the stick were broken in rage and anger.

In William Golding’s “Lord Of The Flies” Novel, symbolism is a very important element of the book, Many symbols show how the boys on the island are slowly becoming savage and losing their civility.

In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, he depicts the true nature of humans in evil, and that it is only by the taming of society that people are civilized. British boys on an island are of course civilized to begin with, but through a series of accidents and purposeful brutish acts, the orderly boys begin to change. But Ralph didn’t. He stayed strong through everything that happened, unlike Jack who just lost it. Ralph was the one who stayed in his civilized self throughout the story and still held reason. Ralph had the conch, the symbol of order, he held meetings when they needed to be held, and he held onto his sanity. British school boys end up on an island after their plane was shot out of the sky and crashed. Ralph is the main character,

"A conch he called it. He used to blow it and his mum would come. It's ever so valuable" – Piggy, Lord of the Flies. The conch is a sea creature, its shell is revered in many cultures such as Hinduism and Buddhism for its beauty and the sound it makes. The conch is also that shell in Lord of the Flies which is blown into to gather the boys. The author, William Golding, uses the conch to show that democracy will succumb to rule by force in the face of serious trouble or need. In the book, it is a symbol of democratic power but it is not without its enemies who eventually overrule it.

The Great Rock “I got the conch!” (Piggy). The conch symbolizes power of speech. In the novel, Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, there are a series of mishaps attempting to trace the defects of society back to those of human nature.

Ralph and Piggy believe that Jack and his tribe are after the conch, and leave it behind when they go to see what is going on at the other side of the island. Jack then begins to signal to the audience and the boys that the conch is now useless. It is has no meaning to anyone on the island, specifically his tribe. He indicates this statement by saying, “ You left it behind… and the conch doesn’t count on this side of the island-”(150).This passage from the novel exemplifies how the boys have lost their sense of command and order within one another. The message from the statement made by Jack is guiding the reader to see how each boy is transforming into a more ruthless individual, not caring about any rules or individuals in their lives. With author, William Golding, having the conch’s purpose be lost and forgotten begins to exhibit the children’s loss of reason within one another.

Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, is about a group of schoolboys trapped on an island during a world war. Without any adults watching over them, the boys believe they have freedom and can do whatever they want. Throughout the book, objects, such as the fire, piggy’s glasses, etc., hold a symbol. One of those objects is the conch, which symbolizes the order on the island and how the order changes.     First of all, the conch throughout the book was symbolized as order for the way it was used.

In the book Lord of the Flies by William Golding, the conch shell, that Piggy and Ralph first find lying in the sand on the deserted island, to me, represented civilization and control. It gave the boys on the island a sense of government and routine. Once the shell is broken though, later in the book, complete chaos ensues and the boys on the island have seemed to lost their sense of civilization and have turned to savagery and hunting people like animals. In this book the author used a lot of symbolic language and there were many items in the book that represented something else entirely, such as the conch.

Besides in the insufficient fraction left of Ralph's tribe, the importance of the conch ceases completely: "…the conch doesn't count on this side of the island--" (150). Jack limits the power of the conch to only being operative on one part of the island. Since as a leader Jack radiates supremacy, most of the boys follow his views on the conch. Due to the decrease in the considerate thoughts the boys have of the conch the civility in the boys decreases as well. Even though a little earlier in the finale the conch still holds some power, the conch soon breaks in the pursuit of killing Piggy: "…the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist" (181) When the conch crushes so does all its power, importance, and symbolic meaning.

In William Golding’s The Lord of the Flies, the conch is a powerful symbol of civilization and order in the island. It has an effective use in the boys’ way of government because it gives the person holding it the right to speak. As the novel progresses, the conch slowly loses its value and importance. This causes the society itself to become a disaster.

Lord of the Flies written by William Golding, is a novel full of symbols, many of them with diverse meanings. There are two main symbols of this novel that truly shows how the boys change from beginning to end. While there are more, this paper will only talk about two. The conch, and Piggy’s glasses which represents the boy's loss of civilization from society, effectively turning them into savages.

From Golding’s use of symbolism, he taught readers a lesson about human kindness and immortality. He supported his claim by mentioning the conch. In the beginning of the novel, the conch symbolizes order and power. The very first rule that Ralph made for the group was that whoever holds the conch gets to speak. After he talks, he’ll “give the conch to the next person to speak”(25). Ralph uses the conch as a symbol of authority with the boys in their second meeting. It came to represent civilization, but then began to fade away after the conflict between Jack. When the conch shell broke and Ralph realized that it didn’t hold any power anymore, it shows how the boys have completely strayed from democracy and an organized leadership. Another symbol

In William Golding's book “Lord of the Flies” he uses a lot of symbolism. The entire book is something related to the real world, as the book sets at the time when World War II was going on and this book is on how there these kids are on an island alone during World War II . A big symbol used throughout the book is the conch.

When the boys first start a fire on top of the mountain, Piggy holds the conch and attempts to speak. But Jack scolds him by saying, “The conch doesn’t count on top of the mountain, so you shut up” (Golding 39). Boys like Jack begin to place restrictions on the conch and lose respect for it and for one another. Then one day at an assembly, Jack places even less importance on the conch excluding more of the boys and weakening the equal order and authority that the conch provides. Jack says, “We don’t need the conch anymore. We know who ought to say things...It’s time some people knew they’ve got to keep quiet and leave deciding things to the rest of us” (Golding 92). Jack’s statement here clearly connects the end of the conch to a change in the social order. Jack is slowly becoming a power-hungry dictator, and the orderly influence of the conch is replaced by man’s evil desires.

The Lord Of The Flies, written by William Golding, is a political allegory where the island illustrates the world while Jack and Ralph both symbolize conflicting ideologies, totalitarianism and democracy because Ralph and Jack, in a power struggle, fight for control over the island, trying to spread their respective ideologies, just as it occurred during the inception of the book. Stranded on the island, the boys, haggard and bedraggled, chose Ralph as their chief. During the voting process, Ralph and his conch, the device use to talk in the tribe, are described: "There was a stillness about Ralph as he sat that marked him out: there was his size, and attractive appearance; and most importantly, yet most powerful, was the conch" (22). The quote,